d. The revenue was still to be collected in {177}the
name, and nominally on behalf of the native prince. The utmost he
would permit in a contrary direction was to appoint English
supervisors, to see that the native collectors did their duty. Beyond
that he would not go. In the eyes of the world of India the three
provinces were to continue a _Subah_, administered by a Subahdar. The
control of the English was to remain a matter for arrangement with
the actual ruler, their real power only to be prominently used when
occasion might require, and then, likewise, in the name of the
Subahdar.

We have fortunately from his own hand the principles which guided
him, and which he hoped would guide his successors, in their
relations to the other powers of India. In a State paper[2] written
before his departure, he thus expressed his views: 'Our possessions
should be bounded by the provinces.' 'We should studiously maintain
peace; it is the groundwork of our prosperity. Never consent to act
offensively against any Powers except in defence of our own, the
King's, or the Nawab-Wazir's dominions, as stipulated by treaty; and,
above all things, be assured that a march to Delhi would be not only
a vain and fruitless project, but attended with destruction to your
own army, and perhaps put a period to the very being of the Company
in Bengal.' In a word, to borrow the criticism of the author from
whose work I have quoted, 'the English were to lie snugly
{178}ensconced in the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.
The frontier of Oudh was to form a permanent barrier against all
further progress.' Such a policy might commend itself to the
theorist, but it was not fitted for the rough throes of an empire in
dissolution, its several parts disputed by adventurers. Within a
single decade it was blown to the winds.[3]

[Footnote 2: _Early Records of British India_, by Talboys Wheeler. In
this interesting work the paper quoted from is given _in extenso_.]

[Footnote 3: Wheeler.]

There is one subject upon which it becomes me to touch slightly
before considering the army administration. During one of his visits
to Murshidabad it was discovered that, in his will, the late
Subahdar, Mir Jafar, had bequeathed five lakhs of rupees to Clive.
The discovery was made after Clive, in common with the other servants
of the Company, had bound himself not to accept any presents from
natives of India. He could not therefore take the legacy himself. Bu